The women and mens American Olympic basketball teams have completed their mission and it all is now golden. The women fist won gold on Saturday and the men earlier today. The women’s game started out close and ended in no contest but the mens game was down to the wire with Spain.

Spain gave the US the best game of their Olympic run and came very close to beating the Redeem Team where at times it looked like Spain would play the spolier to the mission at hand and one the American team had planned for three years.  With the US being up by 13 at one point in the 2nd quarter. the lead quickly was brought down to 2 and the score remained up and down during the whole second quarter. It actually was not until Kobe Bryant got hot in the 4th and finished Pau Gasol, his cohort during the regular season and his oppenent today, and the Spain team off. The victory score was 118-107.

The celebration began with a little over 40 seconds to play as the US knew they were no longer bronze but Golden boys again. Congratulations USA Basketball!

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The US basketball teams are both set up well as they enter the gold medal rounds this weekend. For the women, most have not had a doubt they would win the gold but for the men, there has been a question since 2004. Now after today’s win against Argentina, the US men’s basketball team is set to face Spain on Sunday, 2:30 am EST and the women play Australia at 10am Sunday, EST.

As for the game against Argentina, it looked like it would be a blow out in the first period as the US lead their opponents by as much as 21 at one point. The star player of the Argentina team, Manu Ginobli, also went into the locker room hurt during the first quarter. However, it was not a blow out and the Argentinians almost cut the lead down to 9 during the second half, but never could get it past that as the US team came on stronger to combat the run for the lead and finished the day winning 101-81.

Now they play for the gold against Spain as they are one more win a way. The team that was put together to win back America the top medal is ready for the challenge, and as of the win today, Lebron James will no longer have to be called “Lebronze James” as the US is now guaranteed at least a silver medal. We expect it to be gold. You?

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Olympic basketball is underway and this past weekend both the women and men’s USA teams took their first opponent without blinking. China who played the men’s team did stay neck to neck during the first period (which is half the game) but the second period Kobe, Labron, Kidd and teammates had worn down their opponents and dominated thusforth.

While watching the game, you may have noticed there were some things that did not follow the way the NBA regulates the games, so we decided to look into the differences between NBA basketball and Olympic basketball and share our findings here.

Olympic basketball is regulated by the International Federal Basketball Association (FIBA), and below are the differences:

1. The three point line is less of a distance from the basket than it is in the NBA with the NBA being 23′9″ from the rim and the FIBA being 20′6″.
2. The NBA players that commit six personal fouls are no longer able to play the game where in the FIBA it is only 5. A technical foul also counts towards the total number of fouls for the player.
3. The NBA has 4 time periods each of 12 minutes and the international rules play out only 2 time periods of 20 minutes each
4. The shot clock in the NBA is 24 seconds where in the Olympics it is 30 seconds
5. There will only be two time outs per team per half (period) and they last 1 minute so there are no 20 second time outs or TV timeouts. If the teams are tied at the end of the regular play then they play 5 minutes as in the NBA but with only 1 time out each.
6. In Olympic play, each team has 8 team fouls before going to to the line to shoot free throws compared to the six in NBA play.
7. The court is set up slightly different with the main differnce being the three point line and the lane set up being shaped more like a trapezoid. See here for a diagram. Like the NBA players will be in violation if they are in the lane for more than 3 seconds.

So now that you know the difference you might not be as confused during the next games. We are looking forward to the men’s game against Spain as we see them to be a reasonable opponent to the men  reclaiming the gold. For the women it should be a walk in a park. Check back as we keep you up to date on Olympic basketball action.

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Last night the second woman ever in WNBA gave the audience a show with a slam dunk. Candace Parker from the LA Sparks hit the board running and although not with the same strength you would see from the men, it was something that jazzed the LA Sparks team and helped lead them to victory over the Indiana Fever at the Staples Center. After the game Parker was interviewed and she said it was most important to be able to meet this milestone in her career in front of the home crowd as it would not have been the same if she could not share it with her fans. Congrats.

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